Primary Education News

News Quarter of young people cyberbullied in holidays and parents back state schools

This week's research round up includes: how blind people can help teach maths and return to work for teachers after retiring

Poor understanding of pensions

Teachers are more likely to return to work than other public sector employees after retirement, a survey has found.

Half of teachers questioned, who were either retired or within five years of retiring, said they'd consider a part-time role throughout their retirement.

The survey, commissioned by Teachers Assurance and carried out by research specialist Opinion Matters, also found teachers lacked knowledge about the pension income they would receive.

Some 14% of teachers said they had little understanding of retirement benefits and 41% didn't know their lump sum amount. Many teachers were worried about retirement, with 28% reporting they were concerned about the financial implications.

Blind people could help teach kids maths

The superior numerical skills of people who have been blind since birth could open up new ways of teaching maths, according to a study.

University of Hull psychologist Dr Julie Castronovo found that congenitally blind people had outstanding estimation skills, better than those of the sighted participants. She said this contradicts previous assumptions that vision is essential to the development of numerical skills and could lead to a multi-sensory approach being employed in teaching numbers to young people.

Castronovo believes numerical processing may be one of the compensatory strategies blind people acquire to deal with their surrounding environment and has begun investigating the positive impact a multi-sensory approach to teaching numbers could have on children.

Children say cyberbullying getting worse

One in four young people surveyed by a charity said one of their friends has been bullied online or via a mobile phone during the summer holiday.

Some 81% of children believed cyberbullying was getting worse, research by the Diana Award Anti-Bullying Ambassador Programme found.

Around four in 10 of the 700 young people spoken to, aged eight to 22, said their school, college or university didn't teach them about online safety. An additional 38% believed that bullying wasn't taken seriously by the place where they studied.